Pride Of India: The Blind Cricket Team
Cricket is religion in India and visually-impaired cricketers are not just devoted followers, they have passionately been playing and silently reaping results too. In a cricket crazy country where 1983 and 2011 have been etched in golden letters in the collective memory of the nation; the history created by the visually-impaired cricketers has turned pale, with very little or no attention at all.
My City Links gives you a glimpse of their success story, their journey so far and the struggles they face on a daily basis.
WORLD CUP WIN
The visually-impaired cricketers made India proud when they clinched the World Cup on January 20, 2018 by beating Pakistan by two wickets. This was their second title; the team had earlier won the World Cup (ODI) in 2014.
With a total of six participating teams–Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Australia and Nepal – India displayed its supremacy in the group stage itself, winning all matches, thus remaining unbeaten in the tournament.
In the final, India successfully chased an impressive target of 309 in set by Pakistanin the penultimate over, courtesy Sunil Ramesh, who scored a massive 93 runs for India. Odisha, too, had its reason to cheer as two of the players from the State – Jafar Iqbal and Pankaj Bhue were part of the World Cup winning team. Overall, in World Cups, this win was their fourth title – besides winning the first World Cup (ODI) in 2014, India had clinched two T20 World Cup titles in 2012 and 2017.
THE JOURNEY SO FAR
India has played a fair share of national and international tournaments. In 1998, the team reached the semi-finals of the Blind World Cup and in 2002, the team got eliminated in the group stage itself. From 2005 to 2010, India played bilateral series against Pakistan and England and won both. In 2006, India’s run for the World Cup fell short when they were eliminated in the group stage.
In 2010, the Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI), took over as the apex body for blind cricket from Association for Cricket for the Blind in India. Since the take-over, the number of tournaments has gone up, with India netting maximum titles. India also has an Asia Cup victory to its credit after it was crowned champions in 2015.
NO SUPPORT
After winning their second World Cup on January 20, the unsung heroes of cricket had a little share of attention, thanks to the congratulatory messages which flooded on the social media sites.
Dedicating their victory to the Armed Forces, the young players gave their respect to the bravehearts of the country.Despite such top notch performance, their feat was soon forgotten, and they were back to square one – without any support or assistance.
“Everyone is tweeting congratulatory messages including Sachin (Tendulkar) sir and the Prime Minister, but no one is coming forward to support us. We need recognition, not tweets,” says Ajay Reddy, skipper of the team.
ODISHA CHAPTER
In the state sports arena, blind cricket has carved a special space for itself. Over the years, not only Odisha team has been performing exceedingly well in the national events, but also three players from the state have been a regular in the India team.
Jafar Iqbal, an all-rounder and skipper of the Odisha team, has been a constant player in the India team since his debut in 2011. A B1 category player, he was part of all the World Cup titles (2012, 2014, 2017, 2018) and the Asia Cup victory in 2015.
Closely following Jafar are his team mates Pankaj Bhue and Sukhram Majhi. While Pankaj has represented India in the 2012 and 2018 edition of the World Cup, Sukhram was part of the 2017 T20 World Cup winning team.
Taking charge of the players, is the coach Chandra Sekhar Patnaik from Koraput, who has not only groomed these talents, but also polished their skill.
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DEARTH OF INFRASTRUCTURE IN ODISHA
The state blind cricket team is one of the top teams in the country with six consecutive East Zone trophies to its credit.
As per record, the Odisha team has not lost a single match since 2010. Despite such clinical performance, the team has been facing a dearth of infrastructural facilities. Neither there is any dedicated stadium for the young players for practice, nor is any kind of support lend to them by the Government.
Let alone the turf required for practice, the blind cricket team is forced to practice in local fields due to the absence of facilities.
“We can’t practice daily as there is no stadium. Before any tournament, I go for stadium-hunting and try to arrange whatever is possible. At times, we practice in local fields like the BJB college ground, but we are often shoved away by other students. Is this the respect we deserve after winning so many accolades for the country?” asks Jafar Iqbal, skipper of the Odisha team. “We want to innovate new techniques in the game but we are unable to do so as there is no place for practice. Most of the time, we directly go to the national camp where we just focus on our skill. Experimenting new techniques in the national camp is risky because if it doesn’t work, we might get excluded from the team,” says Jafar, who has been a favourite in the India team since 2011 when he made his debut.
But not many know that Jafar had almost given up cricket for athletics!“In 2007-08, seven years after I started playing blind cricket professionally, I felt I couldn’t make a career out of it. Our performance in that phase was not very good and we were not getting any support either. So, I shifted my focus to athletics,” says Jafar.
A dedicated sportsman, Jafar fared well in athletics. At the national level, he clinched one gold medal in 800m while winning two bronze in 200m and 400m. In 2008, he continued the medal hunt and won a silver in 200m.
“Everything was going well, but I suddenly had I knee injury. I had to reluctantly give up on athletics and focus back on cricket. I loved sports, so I had to play some sports at the end of the day,”
Jafar’s comeback into cricket turned fruitful for Odisha. The team which had been losing all matches, suddenly became a scare for the other state teams after Jafar took over as the skipper in 2010.
Yet, the team is struggling for infrastructure support even today. Besides, infrastructure, the visually-impaired cricketers are also not covered under any scheme of the State or Central Government as the sport is yet to get recognition. In such a situation, the players are left to fend for themselves for jobs and other benefits.